Terror Group Back on the Offensive in Afghanistan

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Taliban fighters attacked the Kabul international airport from a building that was under construction nearby. Afghan soldiers said that they shot two gunmen and that two others killed themselves.Published OnJuly 17, 2014CreditImage by Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times

URGUN, Afghanistan — With two high-profile attacks in the past three days — first on Tuesday, when a huge truck bomb killed at least 72 at a market in this remote eastern district, then on Thursday, when suicide attackers fired volleys of grenades on the Kabul airport — the feared Haqqani militant network has gone back on the offensive, Afghan intelligence and security officials said Thursday.

The officials said that after a relative lull in recent months during the Afghan presidential election, both attacks carried all the signatures of the Haqqanis, close allies of the main Afghan Taliban branch. The resource-rich terrorist group is largely based in Pakistan, but has focused on staging dramatic attacks on Afghan cities and against Afghan and international security forces.

Haqqani fighters may be enjoying more freedom to move within Afghanistan than ever. Local and tribal officials interviewed here on Wednesday, a day after the devastating truck bombing, said that more and more militants began moving in over the past year as American units began leaving border outposts.

Now, they said, the Taliban and its allies have taken over at least two former United States bases in the border area of Paktika Province, near Urgun.

“I told the chief of staff and minister of defense to post army units there or the Taliban would take over, and that is what happened,” said Juma Din, a member of Parliament from Paktika, whose own district of Giyan is entirely under Taliban control. “And we told the Americans, ‘If you are going to leave, you are going to open a gate for the Taliban,' ” he said.

“They made a free zone for the Taliban,” said an Afghan tribal elder from the region. “Pakistani and Afghan Taliban are coming over to this side.” He spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution from the Taliban.

For the Taliban, Paktika, which shares a long border with Pakistan’s tribal areas, is a particular prize. With its remote, largely unpoliced areas, the province provides the insurgents with staging areas and access to central Afghanistan with roads running into several adjoining provinces, and also links to a corridor that runs to Kabul.

Thursday’s attack in Kabul was the sort of thing the Haqqani network has been staging for several years, sending in small groups of suicide bombers to blast their way into government buildings or compounds and fight to the death, creating as much damage and publicity as possible.

Five fighters exploded a truck at the entrance to a construction site of residential apartment buildings opposite the military part of Kabul airport, according to witnesses and the police. They killed a guard and raced to the top of a building near the military side of the international airport, where they fired rocket-propelled grenades down into the compound, disrupting flights for hours. After a four-hour fight with Afghan special forces, the last attacker was killed.

In Urgun, the huge bomb blast that rendered a busy bazaar into a pile of rubble and bodies was the second to strike here in two weeks.

In the first, a suicide bomb attack wounded the local Afghan special forces commander, Azzizullah Karwan, and killed several police officers, including the district’s deputy commander.

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An officer searched for evidence on Thursday after a suicide bombing at Kabul airport. Attackers killed a guard and were killed themselves in a battle with security forces, Afghan officials said.CreditDiego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times

Then came the truck bomb. It exploded near a religious school, but locals believe the bomber may have been heading for the district governor’s office nearby, or to the compound for the National Directorate of Security, the main Afghan intelligence agency.

“This is the result of the free zone,” the tribal elder said. “In a few days, they will try to take power in Urgun.”

Urgun has been one of the best-guarded spots in Paktika: It is home to a large Afghan Army base, and to C.I.A.-trained counterterrorism units now run by the directorate.

The leader of those units here, whose name was withheld by government request, is from the Waziri tribe that lives on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border, and wears his hair long in a style favored by the Taliban. He shrugged off concerns that the Taliban would take over Urgun, but acknowledged that things had become much more difficult since the units’ American mentors pulled out a year ago.

“Lwara has a Taliban flag,” he said, naming one important former American base on the border. Another base, in the village of Marga, is now “like Miram Shah,” he said, referring to the Taliban’s longtime center of operations in North Waziristan. Foreign fighters, including Uzbeks and Pakistani Taliban, were now using the Marga base, he said.

Officials say there has been an increased flow of militants into the Afghan side of the border regions in recent months. That is likely to continue as the Pakistani Army maintains its push into the militant stronghold of North Waziristan right on the other side.

Reports from Waziristan say that many armed militant fighters left the region well ahead of the offensive, and are escaping the brunt of it. Afghan civilians and security officials who were interviewed are convinced that the Pakistani military, which has long maintained ties to Afghan-focused militants, is purposefully trying to spare the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani fighters as it advances, despite its promises to disrupt all militant groups in Waziristan.

Pakistani officials insist that Taliban militants focused on attacking the Pakistani government and military have found a safe haven on the Afghan side.

The Afghan Army still maintains two outposts on the Afghan side in Paktika, and the counterterrorism units have two bases on the border. Yet, the commander said, the situation has become increasingly difficult. He said Pakistani militants were moving in quickly, occupying an outpost on Tuesday that used to be maintained by the Afghan Army. The commander’s unit had information that a suicide bomber, a boy of only 11 or 12, had crossed in from Pakistan, but the military failed to find him in time. Two more bombers were also on their way, he said.

A full day after the truck bombing, townspeople here rained curses on the district governor and police chief when the officials visited the bomb site with journalists, accusing them of failing to secure the town and its citizens. The bomb gouged a crater four yards across in the road, smashed rows of shops and splintered trees. Twisted wrecks of a dozen cars were flung aside.

“There were no cars, no ambulances, people were just lying wounded here on the ground and everyone was trying to help,” said Amin Gul, 30, who stood in the wreckage of his pharmacy. “Day by day, the security situation is getting really bad,” he added. “We do not believe in the governor, he is a thief.”

President Hamid Karzai was expected to visit Urgun this week. But in a sign of how dangerous the area is, the presidential protective service was ambushed on Thursday on its way here to coordinate security for the visit, officials said. Three soldiers who were escorting them were killed and four were wounded, said Gen. Zulmai Oryakhail, police chief of Paktia Province.

Editors’ Note:

An earlier version of this article included the name of a counterterrorism unit commander, which was removed at the Afghan government’s request.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A3 of the New York edition with the headline: Terror Group Back on the Offensive in Afghanistan. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe